Augusta, GA
The Dawg Days of summer hit the Junior Players with two (maybe) future UGA players leading
Mason Howell birdies his last two holes, Hamilton Coleman posts the tournament’s low score on their way to the final group for Sunday’s final round at Players Stadium Course.
TPC Sawgrass, AJGA host the Junior Players Championship for the 18th year
The 18th Junior Players Championship is at the Players Stadium Course at TPC Sawgrass. It has become a Labor Day Weekend tradition on the First Coast.
One of the players in the final threesome of the 18th Junior Players Championship on Sunday has already decided to play golf at the University of Georgia — despite having two more years until his high school class graduates.
The other, with the same amount of time left in junior golf, still has an open mind. But he’d be bucking family tradition if he didn’t become a Bulldog.
Either way, they have more immediate issues at hand: battling it out in the final threesome in the final round of the Junior Players Championship, at the Players Stadium Course at TPC Sawgrass.
Mason Howell of Thomasville, Ga., birdied the hardest par-3 and the hardest par-5 holes on the course to polish off a 70 on Saturday, and at 5-under-par 139 has a one-shot lead over Hamilton Coleman of Augusta, Ga., (68, the tournament’s low round for the first two days), who birdied No. 17 and then made a gutsy par at the last to finish at 4-under.
Logan Reilly of Lovettsville, Va. (72), who held a share of the 18-hole lead, is in third at 3-under, Luke Colton of Frisco, Texas (72) is fourth at 2-under and Kailer Stone of Alameda, Calif. (71) is fifth at 1-under.
They are the only players who have broken par for the first 36 holes.
Reilly earned his spot in the final three some when he rallied from a stretch of three bogeys in four holes to birdie Nos. 8 and 9.
First Coast players lagging behind
After Miles Russell became the first resident of the First Coast to win the Junior Players last year — with Phillip Dunham of Ponte Vedra Beach finishing second and Tyler Mawhinney of Fleming Island in a tie for sixth — it will take an extraordinary final round for any of them to reach the top 10, much less contend.
Junior Players leaderboard
Junior Players final-round groups, tee times
Dunham (75) and Jackson Byrd of St. Simons Island, Ga., (73) are tied for 18th at 3-over. Dunham made only one birdie but it was at his final hole, the par-5 ninth.
Lucas Gimenez of Jacksonville had a wild ride over the Stadium Course, signing for a card that contained four pars, seven birdies, five bogeys and two double bogeys. It added up to a 74 and he’s tied for 31st at 5-over.
Russell got his score to even par through 13 holes and was only four off the lead at the time. But he bogeyed four of his last five holes and shot 76. He’s tied for 34th at 6-under with Mawhinney (77).
Ambrose Kinnare of St. Augustine (83) is tied for 68th at 15-over.
Junior Players leaders putt, scramble well
Both of the leaders said the course takes a mental toll on players, especially off the tee.
“The greens are in really good shape but you have to play really smart to get there,” said Howell, who hasn’t made a college decision yet but is from a Bulldog family — both his parents graduated from UGA. “If you have one lapse you’re in trouble. You can’t just walk up to a tee and whack at it.”
Coleman agreed with the sight lines off the Stadium Course tees.
“They are just so demanding,” he said. “There is not a breather hole off the tee. Every tee shot, you’re kind of stressing. Once you’re in the fairway and in the right position, you can kind of attack.”
Howell, Coleman get hot at different times
Howell is 14th on the AJGA Rolex Rankings and has five top-10 finishes this year in AGJA or national junior events, including a tie for fifth in the Western Junior.
He was 1-over for his first 10 holes after starting his round at the par-4 10th, then dropped birdie putts of 15 feet at No. 2 and 20 feet at No. 5. Howell capped his day when he drilled a 4-iron from 211 yards out to set up a 35-foot birdie putt at the par-3 eighth, then pitched onto the green of the par-5 ninth hole in three, and made a 3-footer.
Coleman, who verbally committed to Georgia last week, is 91st on the Rolex Rankings. He bounced back from a bogey at No. 2 with short birdie putts at Nos. 3, 4, 7 and 9, a stretch highlighted by a 6-iron against the wind from 176 yards out to within inches of the hole at the seventh.
Coleman birdied the 13th hole on a 15-foot putt at No. 13 and then chipped in from the right-front of the 14th green for birdie, negotiating a difficult angle to the front-left pin.
He almost holed out another short-game shot at the last. Coleman pushed his drive right and had to punch out from the trees. The ball rolled onto and over the green, settling into the left bunker. His sand shot tickled the edge of the hole before rolling 8 feet away, but he made the comebacker for par.
“I scrambled well, definitely,” Coleman said. “My irons have been really solid all week. I just need to tighten up the driver a little bit tomorrow.”
Howell, Coleman have played often
As South Georgia residents, Howell and Coleman know each other well and have played numerous times with and against each other and paired up for a practice round earlier in the week.
“He’s always fun to play with,” Coleman said. “Every time we play together we have fun.”
They also have a good track record on the First Coast. Howell is in his first Junior Players but he won the Billy Horschel Junior Championship on Oct. 5, 2023. Coleman tied for 18th in last year’s Junior Players and tied for third in the Horschel Junior Championship (which is played under a Stableford format), one point out of a playoff between Howell and Clark Van Gaalen.
AUGUSTA, Ga. (WRDW/WAGT) – A stabbing incident at an Augusta McDonald’s left one person hospitalized on Thursday morning, according to officials.
Richmond County deputies responded to the McDonald’s on the 1400 block of Walton Way for reports of a stabbing at 8:23 a.m.
Deputies learned the stabbing occurred after an individual confronted several people in the business’s parking lot, deputies say.
The victim was transported to a local hospital for treatment, according to the sheriff’s office.
Deputies say the suspect fled the scene on foot but was taken into custody a short time later by Road Patrol deputies.
The sheriff’s office says the incident remains under investigation.
Copyright 2026 WRDW/WAGT. All rights reserved.
AUGUSTA, Ga. (WRDW/WAGT) – Local organizations in Augusta are working to keep veterans housed through a federal program called Supporting Services for Veterans Families.
The program, known as SSVF, is administered locally through the CSRA Economic Opportunity Authority.
Army veteran Shania Jones said she had reached a low point before connecting with the program.
“I had gave up, you know, I was feeling hopeless,” Jones said.
She joined the U.S. Army in 2019. She said she is now closing on a home and recently started school.
Veterans describe housing instability after service
Navy veteran Stephen Thompson served from 1988 to 2007 and is a Gulf War veteran.
He said housing instability after leaving the military can go unrecognized.
“You can go 20 years and have these issues and don’t even know you got these issues because you’ve done it so long, you begin to think it’s normal,” Thompson said.
He said he was moving between family members and sleeping on couches before receiving help.
Navy veteran Anthony Prince, who served three years, said awareness is a barrier.
“There’s a lot of veterans out here homeless because they don’t know about the programs,” Prince said.
Caseload growing at CSRA EOA
Khristy Murray, director of veteran services at CSRA EOA, said the number of veterans the program serves has increased.
“We went from serving 280 last year. Right now, I want to say we’re up to about 310,” Murray said.
Murray said the organization conducts outreach across a wide area.
“We do outreach. We serve 23 counties, from here to Athens, and then from here to Statesboro,” Murray said.
Thompson said the program’s impact on him motivated him to help others.
“Having seen what she’d done for me, it sort of gave me the desire to do for another veteran,” Thompson said.
Several other organizations in the area are also working to house veterans, including a tiny home village and the Veterans Villa.
The easiest way to reach them is by telephone at 706-364-6548, or at www.csraeoa.com .
Copyright 2026 WRDW/WAGT. All rights reserved.
The dream of finding an affordable home can feel increasingly out of reach for many prospective buyers, especially those in the middle-income bracket.
While the housing market might appear robust on paper, a closer look reveals a significant disconnect between available homes and what many can truly afford.
A collaborative piece from Realtor.com® and the National Association of Realtors®, the 2026 Housing Mismatch Report, highlights this critical issue. It reveals that middle-income households continue to face the largest supply gap, with buyers earning around $75,000 able to afford homes priced up to about $261,140.
Homes priced below this point currently account for only about 23% of listings nationally, compared with about 44% in a balanced market, representing an effective shortage of about 311,000 listings within reach of these buyers.
This disparity means that 36% of metros fall below 70% alignment, indicating that many lower- and middle-income households struggle to find listings within their price range. In the Augusta-Richmond County, GA-SC metro area, this challenge is particularly evident, as the metro currently faces a shortage of homes for middle-income earners.
Augusta-Richmond County, GA-SC’s housing landscape
The housing market in Augusta, GA and the surrounding Richmond County presents a challenging picture for middle-income buyers. According to the report, for buyers earning $75,000, the metro is categorized as having a moderate shortage of affordable homes.
In March 2026, only 30.60% of listings were considered affordable for these buyers, a decrease from 33.80% in March 2025. This translates to a deficit of 787 affordable listings missing from the market.
Additionally, the report gives the area an alignment score that shows how well the current distribution of home listings matches the distribution of household incomes in a given market.
A score of 100% means listings are distributed proportionally across income levels, while a lower score means the available listings do not match what local buyers can afford. The score is calculated by comparing, at each of 12 income tiers, the actual share of listings that a household in that tier can afford against the share they would be able to afford in a balanced market, when listing prices are distributed proportionally across all income groups.
For the Augusta-Richmond County metro, the March 2026 Listing-Income Alignment Score stood at 78.90%. While this represents a positive change of +4.4 compared to 2025, it still marks a significant decline of 16.7 when compared to 2019.
This indicates that despite some recent improvements, the market still has a long way to go to truly align with the financial realities of its local buyers.
Experts weigh in on the path forward
Addressing the housing challenges in metros like Augusta-Richmond County requires more than just an increase in overall inventory. Experts emphasize the need for homes that align with what buyers can actually afford.
“The data makes clear that more inventory alone won’t be enough to unlock the housing market,” Danielle Hale, chief economist at Realtor.com®, explains. “A true recovery requires homes at the right price points.”
She adds, “Until the supply of entry-level and middle-market homes grows to meet demand, many buyers will continue to find the market out of reach despite headline improvements in affordability and inventory.”
Nadia Evangelou, NAR principal economist and director of real estate research, echoes this sentiment. “The U.S. housing market continues to face a structural mismatch between the homes available for sale and what buyers can afford,” she states.
Evangelou further notes, “Too much of the inventory available today remains concentrated at higher price points, leaving a shortage of options for entry-level and middle-income buyers.”
These insights underscore the urgent need for targeted solutions to create a more balanced and accessible housing market for everyone.
Generated with AI assistance and finalized through human editorial oversight by Dina Sartore-Bodo and Gabriella Iannetta.
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